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The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) has found that Parliament failed to hold the executive to account and that its failures allowed state capture and corruption to continue unabated.<\/p>\n
Outa released its annual parliamentary oversight report, looking at 2021.<\/p>\n
It noted that parliamentarians have been metaphorically burning down the institution of Parliament for years, threatening South Africa\u2019s democracy.<\/p>\n
The report, titled \u201cMPs dragging their feet: Outa\u2019s 2021 Report on Parliamentary Oversight in South Africa\u201d, is an assessment of how well members of Parliament (MPs) did their job defending democracy in 2021. <\/p>\n
It was compiled by Outa\u2019s parliamentary and energy adviser, Liz McDaid.<\/p>\n
\u201cOuta believes that Parliament is a burnt-out shell in more ways than just physically,\u201d said McDaid.<\/p>\n
McDaid said Parliament\u2019s failures allowed state capture and corruption to become entrenched and that public participation in some parliamentary committees was \u201cwoefully inadequate\u201d.<\/p>\n
This is the third annual report in Outa\u2019s series of reports on oversight of Parliament.<\/p>\n
An additional report was submitted to the state capture commission November 2020, detailing how Parliament repeatedly failed to take action to stop state capture.<\/p>\n
\u201cEach of our previous reports was strongly critical of the failure by parliamentarians to hold the executive to account. Despite government\u2019s claimed opposition to the erosion of state institutions due to state capture, this report finds no significant improvement in accountability by Parliament,\u201d said McDaid.<\/p>\n
The latest report found there was significant space for Parliament to improve to protect democracy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe improvement we are looking for is a responsive Parliament, that holds the executive accountable, whose operations take place in a transparent manner and which shows a welcoming and proactive stance towards public participation. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is difficult to escape from the perception that Parliament has been hollowed out and filled with unethical people and, until that is addressed, we cannot expect any real accountability,\u201d the report says.<\/p>\n
The report findings include that Parliament failed in its duty of constitutional oversight, some MPs failed to uphold their constitutional oath of office and the public participation processes were still inadequate.<\/p>\n
It further found that some MPs were not heard by Parliament, there was no sign of the party constituency offices funded by Parliament, and there was a strong need for structural reform.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want a Parliament that holds the executive to account and welcomes public participation,\u201d said McDaid.<\/p>\n
Another example of failed public participation, the report noted, was the annual Budget. <\/p>\n
It said that year after year, Parliament held public hearings for input on the Budget, but every year the Budget was passed unchanged with no reference to that input.<\/p>\n
\u201cA crucial part of Parliament\u2019s job is to exercise oversight over the executive. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt has failed in this, allowing state capture and corruption to become entrenched, and continues to fail, including by protecting and promoting those deeply implicated in wrongdoing. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis report looks at how Parliament is failing and the implications of that failure,\u201d the report says.<\/p>\n
kailene.pillay@inl.co.za<\/p>\n
Political Bureau<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) has found that Parliament failed to hold the executive to account and that its failures allowed state capture and corruption to continue unabated. Outa released its annual parliamentary oversight report, looking at 2021. It noted that parliamentarians have been metaphorically burning down the institution of Parliament for years, threatening […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51103,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[1339,7449,7778,11427,528,1111],"class_list":["post-51102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-politics","tag-allowed","tag-capture","tag-failed","tag-oversight","tag-parliament","tag-state"],"yoast_head":"\n